Crying Foul At the BSA's "Nauseating" Anti-Piracy Tactics 235
Barence writes "The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has been accused of heavy-handed tactics that could drive small companies to incriminate themselves. The Microsoft-backed piracy watchdog generates a quarter of its cases by offering employees cash rewards for informing on their own employer. 'It is basically harvesting allegations from disgruntled employees and farming them out to expensive law firms,' one small business owner told PC Pro, who said he was 'nauseated' by the tactics. The BSA then sends out a letter demanding the business owner fill out a software audit, or potentially face court action — even though the BSA has no power to demand such an audit and hasn't pursued a court case in five years. 'It's designed to scare the recipient into thinking that they're obliged to provide certain information when, in fact, it's difficult to see that they are,' said a leading IT lawyer."
Re:Use Linux (Score:5, Informative)
No response at all is dangerous. A better response is "We are not in violation of any licenses. Please direct all further correspondence to our attorney. Find his contact information attached."
I have a feeling in most cases it will end there.
Re:Use Linux (Score:5, Informative)
Windows is not free.. Its built into the price... Saying Windows comes free with your pc for free is like saying the CPU and memory are also come free with your PC..
Re:Use Linux (Score:5, Informative)
Is that the same guitar guy who has been raided twice, because he's using imported wood (all of which is legal, but they still shut him down)? If it's not RIAA or the BSA, then it's your own government. The owner believes he's being harassed because he gave multi-million dollar donations to the Republicans, but not one penny to Obama in 2008.
The best I can tell, you are talking about the Gibson raid. It was Fox News that baselessly speculated CEO Henry Juszkiewicz was being targeted for his political leanings. From FEC records, Juszkiewicz contributed $52K to Republicans and $39K to Democrats over 10 years. That's quite a different story from the one you are telling.
Re:Use Linux (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Reply letter (Score:4, Informative)
Why not go all the way and just require a court order?
I don't know that they can force you to let them investigate, but some software licenses include a clause requiring you to cooperate with software audits. If you're licensed for such software, you're now in breach and they can probably revoke the license. All they need is evidence you're still using the software after that and that's grounds for a lawsuit, which includes discovery.
We refer you to the reply given in the case of (Score:5, Informative)
"We acknowledge your letter of 29th April referring to Mr J. Arkell. We note that Mr Arkell's attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of our reply and would therefore be grateful if you would inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off."
Information from a BSA opponent (Score:5, Informative)
While hunting for material on BSA, I found the most concentrated anti-BSA material here: http://www.bsadefense.com/main/index.aspx [bsadefense.com]
This is a law firm that makes money defending businesses against BSA, so you can be as skeptical as you like. As far as I read, their claims agree with what I have learned elsewhere.
Evasion vs Mitigation (Score:5, Informative)
Here is our register - showing the dates that we have regularly internally audited it. Oh, and from a software perspective, here is our policy regarding workstation rebuilds to obliterate non-company software - and our log of workstation rebuilds. Oh, and here is our staff policy that makes employees responsible for any illegal/unlicensed software on their workstations. Feel free to come and audit our register at your own expense.
Any business that is not in a position to make this statement is not serious about being a business. I own a thriving software house and we have such a register, policies, etc. Let's face it folks - we're in IT. This kind of thing is almost trivial to set up - and it is relatively easy to maintain.
Re:Also wouldn't change the outcome any (Score:4, Informative)
"If you have all your commercial software boxes n' licenses"
They will do you absolutely no good in a BSA audit. If you don't have original invoices that show where you paid for the software any number of pretty stickers or boxes will not satisfy the audit. Believe me, i know. Been there. Done that.
Re:Use Linux (Score:5, Informative)
Most times a PC with windows is cheaper than a PC without, because of the adware subsidizing the PC. I'm not going to buy a PC w/o windows if it actually cost 50-100 dollars more.
Re:Use Linux (Score:5, Informative)
Thanks for the info. I researched it and it wasn't just FOX news saying it. Quote: Henry Juszkiewicz, the chief executive officer of Gibson Guitar Corp., tells National Review Online that President Obama, a "big liberal," has done "untold damage to business" and should not be applauded for his jobs speech. "He's a government fan," he says. "He has a problem with successful businesses. He thinks they're the problem, that they shouldn't be quite as successful."
"He is using the levers of government to not only redistribute, but to penalize," he adds. "I see a difference between what he said and what he's doing."
"Gibson has been under federal investigation in recent months, reportedly for its importation practices. Juskiewicz blames the Obama administration for causing his company, an iconic American brand, to lose money and lawyer up."
BSA is a total fuck up, period (Score:5, Informative)
Ever since its inception, BSA is nothing but crap
Back in the 1990's, they have sent me threatening emails and letters - without even haven't proven that I have pirated anything
Back then I attended some CAD/CAM seminars offered by Audodesk - and in those events they handed out forms in which we filled in our names, company names, email address, snailmail address and so on
Before I attended those seminars, I got no threatening email nor letters filled with legalese jargons, threatening to take me to court for "using unauthorized software"
I mean, it's a total fuck
I attended those seminars to learn more about CAD/CAM, it does not mean I own any CAD/CAM software, but of course, BSA doesn't care
They just took the name list from the seminar organizers and mass-mailing the threatening letters
After those encounters, I stopped attending any Autocad seminar and in a few years, those threatening letters also stopped coming
BSA's way of handling their customers, even potential customers, is totally ridiculous
Re:BSA is a total fuck up, period (Score:3, Informative)
Back in the day, I worked for a subsidiary of Waldenbooks (remember them?), known as Waldensoftware. The head honcho, at the time, was a real asshole named Glenn Ochsenreiter. Under him, guess what was allowed policy?
- Employees could "check out" software (this was considered "product knowledge training")
- Software returns were allowed, checked, and re-shrinkwrapped for resale! (See above^)
- Non-demo programs were often loaded on in-store computers. They were also re-shrunk.
- "Spiffs" were awarded to employees to promote certain products. Oddly enough, mostly Microsoft. I still have my Microsoft coffee cup around here somewhere. Companies like WordPerfect and Borland would give discounts, but it seemed that MS would give you the whole shebang.
In any event, the software division eventually folded up, but not before ol' Glenn left for greener pastures. Guess where? The BSA! That's right - the very guys that abhor the very things that Glenn allowed at his last company. I told you he was an asshole.
All this was about the time of your AutoCAD experience. Another interesting item to note was the complete hatred of anything NOT Microsoft/PC. We sold Mac, AppleII, C64, Amiga, and AtariST wares. You wouldn't know it by browsing the shelves, though. At first, I almost believed the buyers when they sent a memo that software for the other machines was "drying up". After I left for another software store, I found that to be far from the case. We could order darn near anything for any platform. It wasn't long after I left that entire user groups migrated the twenty or so miles to my new store to get things. Waldensoftware was bought out, soon enough, by Electronics Boutique. Good riddance!